Ozy CEO Carlos Watson has stepped back as host of the documentary portion of the 42nd News & Documentary Emmy Awards slated for Wednesday in the wake of a weird revelation that his company’s co-founder impersonated a YouTube executive during a fundraising call with Goldman Sachs bankers.
“Carlos Watson has graciously reached out to us and asked to be removed from his hosting duties tomorrow night so as not to distract the focus from the talented nominees in the documentary categories of the 42nd News & Documentary Emmy Awards,” NATAS released a statement. “As such, we are moving forward with our three presenters who will be sharing the hosting duties throughout the evening.” They include June Cross – Documentary Filmmaker & Columbia Journalism School Professor; CJ Hunt Documentary Filmmaker, The Neutral Ground; and Sonja Sohn – Documentary Filmmaker, The Slow Hustle / Actress, Body of Proof, The Wire.
This sudden change comes after a turbulent few days for Ozy and Watson, who co-founded the digital media website in 2013 along with Samir Roa. Ben Smith’s Monday media column in the New York Times recounted a strange teleconference in February where Rao, who is also Ozy’s COO, pretended to be Alex Piper, the head of unscripted programming for YouTube Originals.
The call with Goldman Sachs bankers was about a possible new round of funding for the site and Piper was meant talk about Ozy’s great relationship with YouTube and how many views Ozy videos attracted.
Roa, as Piper, had asked to move the meeting from Zoom to a plain voice call, saying his Zoom wasn’t working. He talked up Ozy’s ad dollars and view on YouTube. A Goldman banker, however, found his voice on the call to be electronically altered. Piper reached out through his assistant to find out that he did not know anything about the Goldman banker and the call.
YouTube did an investigation. Watson claimed that the voice belonged a Rao who was in a mental crisis.
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